We Finally Did the Thing!

Here We Are Again... But For Real This Time

Remember all those times Mel and I said we were going to be living on the road full-time? And then remember how we kept, well, not doing it? Yeah, we kinda become the boy who cried "van life" 😬

Here's the thing though: I wasn't supposed to be writing this post from the road. I was supposed to be back in Chicagoland right now. You see, we had a plan! A sensible, adult plan where we'd spend one last summer in Chicagoland and then come fall, we'd finally stop being those people who talk about living on the road, and instead actually become the people who live on the road.

Welp.... 🚨 Spoiler Alert 🚨

The Universe Had Other Plans For Us! You see, two days into our drive out to Bellingham, Washington (where Mel was going to take a mountaineering course on Mount Baker), my parents texted us. And honestly? The moment I saw what they sent, I knew our "plan" had just changed, and really just flew out the window.

Attached was a "delightful" 😅 letter from their HOA informing them that:

the use of a trailer for residential purposes —whether temporary or permanent— is strictly prohibited

Which meant we could no longer stay in our trailer on their property anymore. The timing was almost offensively perfect. The letter had been sitting on their "deal with later" inbox for a few weeks, and yet they happened to finally read it right after we took off for the trip.

After years of psyching ourselves up to take the leap, the one time we decided to stay put and to be responsible adults not running away to live on the road, and we basically got evicted from our parking spot anyway. Go figure. 🙃

Sometimes Decisions Make Themselves

We spent the rest of the drive talking through our options. Sure, we could have crashed with other family or moved back into my parents' house, but something about the whole situation felt suspiciously like fate giving us a gentle shove off a cliff.

Plus, let's be honest—after announcing our departure to everyone we know approximately four times over the years and then... still being around, we figured this way we'd save you all from another round of awkward "see you never" conversations that turn into "see you next Tuesday."

Classic us, really. 😂

What's Next (For Those Keeping Score)

So here we are! Officially nomads and loving it, even when "loving it" means discreetly scouting dumpsters to dispose of our composting droppings 💩 every few weeks.

We'll be bumming around the Pacific Northwest until September, then swinging back through Chicagoland for the whole month so we can do those proper goodbyes this time (we promise 🙃).

After that? Southwest 🧗 for October through most of December because we're not complete masochists—nobody wants to experience a Midwest winter in a metal box on wheels 🥶. Then back for Christmas and New Year's. Beyond that, your guess is as good as ours, which is either terrifying or liberating depending on your relationship with uncertainty.

What to Expect from This Digital Scrapbook 📔

Think of this blog as our answer to the eternal question: "What are you two idiots up to now?" Instead of trying to remember who we've told what story to (and inevitably getting the details wrong 😑), we figured we'd just document our questionable life choices here for posterity.

I'm planning to update this every weekend with whatever chaos the week delivered. (Although, I probably will only update it like once a month 😊) Some weeks might involve epic mountain vistas and profound realizations about the meaning of life. Other weeks might just be us trying to figure out why our toilet smells weird or celebrating the discovery of a gas station with clean bathrooms.

Both scenarios are equally likely, and hopefully equally entertaining. 🤷‍♂️

The Fine Print

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Being Real for a Minute

Is this scary? Certainly a bit 🙃. Do we sometimes look at each other and wonder what the hell we're doing? Daily. But there's something to be said for finally doing a thing you've been talking about doing for almost a decade.

For those wondering: yes, the pups 🐶 are still very much part of this operation. Remus and Leo are actually crushing van life—they love the long hikes and new places to explore.

The road's already served up its fair share of "character building" moments, plus some genuinely beautiful ones that almost make up for me having to drive 20 minutes to a tiny general store in Washington just to work out of the truck on their WiFi because our first location had zero cell service.

It's been exactly as challenging and twice as weird as we expected, which feels about right. 😊

Until Next Week (or next month 😅)

So that's the situation: we're officially those people who live on the road now. We're slightly terrified, occasionally competent, and collecting stories at an alarming rate. 😊

Thanks for following along from whatever comfortable, stationary building you're reading this from or maybe a mobile rig yourself! We'll be back next weekend (No promises 😬) with updates from the Pacific Northwest, probably some photos of Mel doing impressive things on mountains, and definitely at least one story about something going hilariously wrong with our setup.

Because if there's one thing we've learned so far, it's that van life is basically just regular life but with more creative problem-solving and fewer functioning toilets.

Cheers from somewhere with questionable cell service,
Jon (and Mel, and the pups)

P.S. - If you're reading this and thinking "I could never do something like that," you never know. But if you're thinking "I wish I could do something like that," well... you just gotta make it happen.